11

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn.
12
In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the
elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!
13
Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about
righteousness.
14
But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish
good from evil. Hebrews 5:11-14 (NIV)
1
Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying
again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God,
2
instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal
judgment.
3
And God permitting, we will do so.
4
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift,
who have shared in the Holy Spirit,
5
who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age,
6
if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the
Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
7
Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom
it is farmed receives the blessing of God.
8
But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the
end it will be burned.
9
Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case--
things that accompany salvation.
10
God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have
helped his people and continue to help them.
11
We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope
sure.
12
We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit
what has been promised.
13
When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by,
he swore by himself,
14
saying, "I will surely bless you and give you many descendants."
15
And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
16
Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an
end to all argument.
17
Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of
what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath.
18
God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we
who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.
19
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary
behind the curtain,
20
where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest
forever, in the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:1-20 (NIV)
 JESUS: THE BETTER HOPE OF INHERITING THE PROMISES OF GOD

The recipients of this letter were "the descendants of Abraham" (2:16). They were Jewish Christians residing
in the Jewish capital of Jerusalem (or the nearby environs) in the middle of the seventh decade of the first
century (approximately 65 A.D. as best we can reconstruct the setting of this letter from the external and
internal evidence available). Their Jewish ethnic heritage constituted them as "descendants of Abraham" by
physical heritage, and by becoming Christians they had become "descendants of Abraham" by participating
in the "faith of Abraham" (Rom. 4:16), for the Christian "children of the promise are regarded as
descendants" (Rom. 9:6-8) of Abraham. As Paul explained in his earliest correspondence with the Galatians,
"If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" (Gal. 3:29).

It was not easy to be a Jewish Christian in the heartland of the Judaic religion in the middle of the first
century. Because they had confessed Jesus as the promised Messiah, these Jewish Christians had "endured
a great conflict of sufferings," had "been made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations," and
had "accepted joyfully the seizure of their property, knowing that they had a better possession, and an
abiding one" (10:32-34). These ostracisms, reproaches, tribulations and sufferings were inflicted upon them
at the hand of their own Jewish peoples who regarded them as traitors for confessing Jesus as the promised
Messiah and becoming Christians.

The external circumstances surrounding these Jewish Christians did not seem to point to a "better
possession" (10:39) or a "great reward" (10:35) in "receiving what was promised" (10:36) by God to
Abraham. Having endured these sufferings without seeing any visible benefits of their Christian faith, they
were in danger of losing their confidence (10:35), of "shrinking back" (10:38,39), and repudiating their
Christian faith in order to join the prevailing socio-political movement of Jewish insurrection against Rome.

The rumblings of revolt were reverberating across the region of Judea. Zealot revolutionaries were
promising that as a result of their planned rout of the Roman oppressors the Jewish peoples would obtain
and inherit what was rightfully theirs what God had promised to them through Abraham. The liberationists
apparently claimed that God was on their side that divine providence and angelic assistance would assure
their victory. The Davidic kingdom would be restored and the Jewish people would rule themselves as they
enjoyed "rest" in the promised land. The Aaronic high priesthood would be restored in the temple. These
were their "divine rights" that must be fought for by ousting the Romans.

Throughout this epistle to the Jewish Christians, Paul has been countering the false premises and promises
of the Jewish insurrectionists. "Promises, promises, promises!" Political promises are cheap, easy to make,
and of little value, but people's hopes are often pinned on such promises in the myopic focus of the
contemporary socio-political situation. The Jewish Christians of Judea were being pressured and seduced to
place their hopes on the physical and material fulfillment of the promises of God to Abraham (cf. Gen. 12,
15, 17,19). Paul seeks to remind them that Jesus Christ was the spiritual fulfillment of all the promises of
God to Abraham, and that "through faith and patience they inherit the promises" (6:13). Whereas the
Jewish peoples always sought a physical fulfillment to the promises of God to Abraham for a land, a nation,
a posterity and a blessing, Paul's repeated explanation is that God has spiritually blessed His people in Jesus
Christ (cf. Eph. 1:3; Gal. 3:8,9,14), brought them to a place in the presence of God (cf. Gal. 4:16; Jn.
14:2,3; Heb. 4:1,9,13; 11:10-16; 12:22: II Pet. 3:13), and made them a holy nation (cf. I Pet. 2:9) with a
plenitude of posterity (cf. Rom. 4:16; 9:8; Gal. 3:7,16,19,28). "Our hope," Paul seems to be saying to the
Jewish Christians of Judea, "is not in political revolution and military war strategies. Our hope is in Jesus
Christ (cf. I Tim. 1:1)." All of the promises of God to Abraham are fulfilled in Jesus Christ (cf. II Cor. 1:20;
Rom. 15:8; Lk. 22:44-47). Christians are already inheriting those promises, even though in the enigma of
the interim until the consummation of Christ's triumph becomes visible, it may not appear that the promises
are fulfilled, but the continuity and perpetuity of the inheritance will be enjoyed through eternity.

Paul was aware that the Judean Christians were becoming "sluggish" (5:11; 6:12) in their resolve to live in
the fullness of what they had in Jesus Christ. They were losing confidence (3:6; 4:16; 10:35) and "shrinking
back" (10:38,39) to a Jewish perspective that focused on tangible and physical fulfillments. They were
flirting with the option of jettisoning their Christian perspective of hope in Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of
all God's promises. Paul is desirous that they "press on to maturity" (6:1), to the end-objective of all God
has for Christians in Jesus Christ.

This historical context allows us to explain the textual context, for the content of this section (5:116:20),
when wrested from its historical and textual context, has often led to extracted and abstracted
interpretations and applications that do not legitimately represent Paul's original intent. A text without its
proper context often becomes a pretext for any fanciful formulation of thought. These verses are not just a
parenthetical interlude or insertion of a non sequitur diversion or digression of thought, as some have
charged. In the greater textual context of Paul's explanation of Christ's assumption of the high priestly
function in the "order of Melchizedek" (4:14 10:39), Paul makes a direct and logical connection with
Abraham who offered gifts to Melchizedek (cf. Gen. 14:18-20). That the Melchizedekan high priesthood is
the context of Paul's reference to Abraham in this text (cf. 6:13) is obvious from the references to
Melchizedek that bracket this section (cf. 5:10; 6:20).

Paul's perspective of the Melchizedekan high priesthood assumed by Jesus Christ was that it explained the
entirety of the "finished work" (cf. Jn. 19:30) of Jesus Christ. This is evident in the statement which directly
precedes this section: "Having been made perfect, He became to all those obeying Him the source of eternal
salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek" (5:9,10). Christ's
priestly sacrifice of Himself once and for all (cf. 7:27; 9:12,28; 10:10,12) was sufficient to satisfy the just
consequences of sin. The "eternal salvation" (5:9) of the "saving life" (cf. Rom. 5:10) of the risen Lord Jesus
continues to be sufficient to allow, and to cause, the Christian to be and do all that God wants to be and do
in and through him. This "finished work" of God's grace by the dynamic of the "Spirit of Christ" (cf. Rom.
8:9) affords Christians the confidence that "He who began a good work in them will perfect it" (Phil. 1:6).

The Christians in Jerusalem needed to recognize the broader expanded priesthood of Melchizedek that had
been assumed by Jesus Christ and the implications thereof. The Aaronic and Levitical priesthoods were
regional and provincial, relating to the Jewish peoples in a particular geographical location, as well as
provisional and preliminary to the ultimate intentions of God in the fulfillment of Jesus Christ. The
Melchizedekan priesthood, on the other hand, was universal for all people, and was an eternal (cf. Heb.
6:20; 7:17,21), permanent (cf. Heb. 7:24) priesthood that represented man before God. The restoration of
the physical priesthood in the temple at Jerusalem and the restoration of an ethnic nation in the land parcel
of Palestine were not God's objective, for God had already restored humanity spiritually through the
universal priesthood and blessing of Jesus Christ, and had established a "holy nation" of people dwelling in
God's presence. For the Christians in Jerusalem to consider jumping on the bandwagon of the Zealot
liberationists was to engage in a retrogression to prior Jewish perspectives, a reversion back to expecting
the promises of God to Abraham to be fulfilled by physical and material criteria rather than the spiritual
fulfillment of all God's promises to Abraham in Jesus Christ.
When Paul refers to his readers as being "dull" (5:11) and "sluggish" (6:1), and needing to "press on to
maturity" (6:1), it has often been assumed by commentators that the recipients were immature in their
understanding of the Christian faith, having failed to grow and progress as they should have in their
knowledge of Christian doctrine and behavior. It must be questioned, however, whether this was a
pedagogical and didactic issue that Paul alludes to, or whether is was a practical and experiential issue. Was
it an epistemological problem or an ontological negligence? Was this a theorem information deficiency, or
was this a practicum faith deficiency? Many interpreters have indicated that Paul was referring to a learning
problem that the readers were slow learners, stagnated as ignorant "spiritual babies" who had not learned
their ABCs and needed to go back to the elementary school of Christian learning. Several observations
dictate against such an interpretation, however. All that Paul has written in this epistle, both prior to this
section and subsequent to this section, presupposes and indicates an advanced understanding of the
Christian faith on the part of the readers. The recipients appear to be regarded as well-taught and
knowledgeable Christians. Paul does not seem to think that the readers needed to return to or review the
initial and foundational tenets of Christian instruction (6:1,2), but in commonality with them writes, "let us
press on to maturity." Maturation is not so much a matter of information as it is a matter of sanctification.
Christianity is not essentially an epistemological belief-system, but is the ontological Being of Christ lived out
in such a way that the end-objective (Greek word telos) of God is accomplished, and God is glorified as
Christ's life and character are lived out despite how much information and knowledge one has, and despite
the external circumstances. Those who are spiritually "mature" (Greek word teleios 5:14; 6:1) are those
who are spiritually discerning and are "listening under" God in obedience (cf. 5:8,9).

This kind of maturity was the need of the Jerusalem Christians. They were being pressured and "put in a
bind" by the false hopes and expectations of the Zealot movement. There was an erosion in their boldness
and confidence and hope in Jesus Christ. They were becoming "sluggish" (5:11; 6:12) and timid, and in
danger of neglecting their salvation in Christ (2:3) and regressing to their prior Jewish perspectives of God's
promises. Throughout this epistle Paul attempts to encourage these Christians in Judea to make the difficult
decisions that are called for in their present situation to "pay close attention to what they have heard"
(2:1); to "hold fast their confidence" (3:6), and "confession" (4:14), and "assurance" (3:14), in order to
"endure" (10:36; 12:1) and "persevere" (10:39). In this specific section (5:11 6:20) Paul exhorts them to
"build on the foundation" (6:1) they have in Christ, to engage in the "things that accompany salvation"
(6:9), "to be diligent to realize the full assurance of hope until the end" (6:11), to have "faith and patience
to inherit the promises" (6:12), and this by "pressing on to maturity" (6:1), the end-objective of God in their
lives.

Though the openings verses (5:11-14) of this section may appear to be a rebuke or reprimand of his
readers, they are best understood as a corrective chiding or cajoling designed to stimulate and motivate the
Jerusalem Christians to make the difficult decisions of Christian maturity. Rather than seeking to scold or
shame the brethren in Jerusalem, Paul employs the sarcasm and irony of referring to them as needy pupils
requiring elementary instruction or infants dependent on predigested milk if they are not able and willing to
make the mature decision to persevere under pressure. Paul appeals to them to recognize that "Jesus is the
better hope of inheriting the promises of God."

5:11 In direct connection with the preceding verses, Paul writes, "Concerning this we have much to
say, and it is difficult to explain," The pronoun can be translated as a masculine, "him", or as a neuter,
"this." If translated as a masculine pronoun, "him" can refer either to Melchizedek as the type of Christ, or
to Christ as the antitype of Melchizedek, since both are mentioned in the preceding sentence. Translated as
a neuter pronoun, "this" can refer to "this subject matter of Christ being high priest in the order of
Melchizedek," which encompasses both of the interpretations of the masculine pronoun. Paul's use of the
plural "we have much to say," has led some to speculate about plural authorship, but is best understood as
an editorial "we" including himself with his ministerial colleagues and his readers. That there is indeed
"much to say" about this subject is evidenced by the lengthy treatment of the theme in 7:110:18.

The subject of Christ's Melchizedekan high priesthood is without a doubt "difficult to explain," because it
comprehends the entirety of Christ's "finished work." This is not an easy subject and requires careful
spiritual understanding. The difficulty of the subject material, however, is often dependent on the maturity
of the audience to understand and appreciate what is being presented. In this case, the difficult subject
matter was compounded by the apparent indolent and indifferent attitude of the readers in Jerusalem. It is
doubly "difficult to explain "since you have become sluggish to the hearing," Paul writes. Theirs was
not a limitation or inability to intellectually or spiritually grasp the subject matter. Neither was it a
communication problem of finding adequate words. The problem with the Christians in Jerusalem was an
unresponsive unwillingness to "listen under" God in obedience in the midst of their difficult socio-political
situation. In the preceding sentence Paul had noted that "He (Jesus Christ) became to all those obeying
("listening under" Greek hupakouo) the source of eternal salvation" (5:9). The Jerusalem Christians were
"sluggish in their listening" (Greek word akouo). It is not that they were mentally dense or had a diminished
capacity to understand. Rather, they were not being diligent (cf. 4:11; 6:11) to persevere (cf. 10:39) in a
vital and legitimate (cf. 12:8 Greek root word for "sluggish") expression of "the obedience of faith" (cf.
Rom. 1:5; 16:26). There seems to have been a spiritual inertia precipitated by "listening" to the voices of
the revolutionary instigators, rather than to the voice of God to ascertain how He wanted to live out His
character in them.

5:12 "For through this time you ought to be teachers," Paul implores. A teacher is not just an
information processor who instructs others. A teacher is one who is responsible and takes the lead to speak
out boldly, sharing out of what that teacher knows (cf. 8:11; I Cor. 2:12). A Christian teacher is one who
has been taught by God (cf. I Thess. 4:9), "listening under" the Divine instruction of the Spirit (cf. Jn.
14:26; I Jn. 2:27), and is willing to take the lead in obedience. "Through this time" of difficult turmoil in
Palestine, the Jerusalem Christians were not leading boldly in faith, and Paul chides them saying, "you
have need again for someone to teach you the initial elements of the words of God." These
Christians had apparently retrogressed into a pupil phase of spiritual progress. In their hesitancy to act in
the obedience of faith, they were like students who were dependent on an instructor to receive second-hand
knowledge concerning the basic rudiments of divine logic. The "initial elements of the words of God" are not
just elementary Biblical information, but the foundational (cf. 6:1) understanding of God's fulfilling all His
promises in Jesus Christ (cf. II Cor. 1:20).

Changing the analogy, but continuing the irony, Paul adds, "and you have come to need milk and not
solid food." Mature Christians should be able to accommodate both "the pure milk of the word that causes
one to grow in respect to salvation" (I Peter 2:2), as well as the "solid food" of spiritual discernment and
digestion that understands the sufficiency of the "finished work" of Christ. Paul intimates that if the Judean
Christians are not willing to persevere under pressure, they are like infants that can only tolerate the
second-hand nourishment of predigested food.

5:13 The nourishment analogy is further explained: "For every one partaking of milk alone is not
experienced in the word of righteousness, for he is an infant." Those unwilling to be spiritually
discerning by partaking of the solid food of "listening under" God in obedience are being childish in their
desire only for predigested milk provided by another. Paul's caricature of the Jerusalem Christians suggests
that they might be immature in the discerning process of spiritual growth that partakes of the "word of
righteousness" in order to yield "the fruit of righteousness" (12:11). The living Lord Jesus is the divine
"Word of Righteousness," apart from Whom there can be no righteous behavior.

5:14 "But solid food," Paul goes on to explain, "is for the mature, those who through habituated
experience have their perceptions exercised to discern both good and evil." Mature Christians,
those recognizing the end-objective that God intends for their lives in the functional expression of the
Christ-life lived out to the glory of God, can appreciate and accommodate the "solid food" of understanding
and applying the reality of Christ's intercessory high priesthood in their lives. Christian maturity is the
habituated experience or the practiced exercise of perceiving, appreciating and discerning (the English word
"aesthetics" is derived from the same root as the word here translated "perceptions") the source and
expression of the character of good and evil. This is not the same as an intellectual determination of true
and false, nor an ethical discrimination of right and wrong, but is a spiritual discernment of the "good"
character that is derived only from God (cf. III John 11) by the sufficiency of His grace, as distinguished
from the "evil" character derived from the Evil One (cf. Matt. 12:35). In the case of the Christians in
Jerusalem, they did not seem to have an appetite for the "good" character that "accompanied salvation" (cf.
6:9) and allowed them to minister to others in maturity (cf. 6:10) as they continued to be receptive to the
"Word of Righteousness" (5:13), despite the difficulty of the then present circumstances. The "evil"
character that they were tempted to partake of was the failure to appreciate the full significance of the risen
Lord Jesus and the tendency to function in a manner that was not consistent with God's intent and character
by desiring a physical and material fulfillment of God's promises rather than the spiritual fulfillment God had
provided in Jesus Christ. Paul had such a deep-seated concern for his kinsmen, both physical and spiritual,
that they should not lapse into the immaturity of seeking the second-best of the second-hand promises of
the Jewish liberationists, but that the maturity of their sanctification would be manifested in the "diligence
that would realize the full assurance of hope until the end" (6:11) as they remained receptive to God's
"good" character effected only by the high priestly intercessory work of the living Lord Jesus.

6:1 "Therefore," Paul continues, "since you are not in need of the preliminary and primary reasonings
and study of Christ, and since you are not to be undiscerning and dependent on others, let us proceed and
advance beyond the elementary principles and build upon the foundation that has been laid. You are not
bottle-babies! You are not kindergarten pupils needing to learn your ABCs despite the preceding sarcasm of
hypothesized concern." This interpretation avoids any contradiction between 5:11-14 and 6:1-3. "Having
left the initial word of Christ, let us be brought upon maturity," The "initial word of Christ," whether it
is "the word from Christ" (subjective genitive) or "the word about Christ" (objective genitive), will
necessarily include the six (6) foundational elements of Christian teaching that are delineated below (6:1,2).
Including himself with his readers, Paul desires that they should be carried forward and enabled in the
maturation process by the grace of God. Instead of the initial, starting elements of Christian instruction,
they need to be brought unto the end-objective of Christian maturity, allowing the "finished work" of the
living Lord to be operative in their lives.

Foundations are important, as is made clear by Jesus' parable of building on rock instead of sand (Matt.
7:24-27; Lk. 6:48,49), but foundations are not an end in themselves for they are designed for a structure to
be build upon them. By referring to "having left the initial word of Christ," Paul is not advocating that the
foundational factors should be abandoned, destroyed or denied, but is encouraging them to go on and build
maturity on the foundation that has been laid, "not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead
works and of faith upon God." Though some have interpreted these foundational elements to be the
Jewish teachings that these Jewish Christians had built their Christian faith upon, the context of "the initial
word of Christ" seems to dictate that they refer to initial Christian teaching. Initial Christian instruction
involves an admonition to "repentance from dead works" (cf. Acts 2:38; 3:19; Heb. 9:14), a change of mind
about one's sinful expressions that do not express the living character of God and are worthy of punitive
death consequences. Initial Christian instruction also includes a call to "faith upon God" (cf. Acts 16:31),
receptivity to the redemptive activity of God in His Son, Jesus Christ.

6:2 The list of foundational Christian teachings continues. "Teaching about baptisms" was part of the
initial teaching of the Church (cf. Acts 2:38; 8:12). The use of the plural "baptisms" may refer to teaching
that differentiated between Jewish proselyte baptism, the baptism of John the Baptist (cf. Acts 18:25;
19:3), and Christian baptism (cf. Acts 2:38; 19:5). Such teaching could also distinguish between baptism in
the Spirit (cf. I Cor. 12:13) and the initial Christian rite of water baptism.

The "laying on of hands" was sometimes employed in healing (cf. Mk. 5:23; 6:5; 16:18; Acts 9:12,17), or
in recognizing God's ordination to ministry (cf. Acts 6:6; 13:3; I Tim. 4:14; 5:22; II Tim. 1:6), but the more
likely reference here is to the early Christian practice of "laying on of hands" as an outward sign to indicate
receipt of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 8:17; 19:6). This accords well with the previous reference to "baptism"
and the subsequent reference to the Holy Spirit in 6:4.

Teaching about "the resurrection of the dead ones" has always been a distinctive part of initial Christian
instruction. Though Paul's teaching of "the resurrection of the dead ones" who died in Christ was not always
well received (Acts 17:32) as it countered the popular Greek concept of the inherent immortality of the soul,
he placed much emphasis on the Christian's resurrection from physical death, based on the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead (cf. I Cor. 15:1-58).

The foundational teaching of "the judgment of the ages" is closely associated with the eschatological
teaching of "the resurrection of the dead ones." Such "judgment" is not invested with any negative or
positive connotations for the determinative judgment is based on an individual's spiritual union with either
the Spirit of God or the "spirit of this world" (cf. I Cor. 2:12), and is but the consequence of one's freely
chosen continuity and perpetuity of that spiritual union. Such talk of "the judgment to come" made Felix
very uncomfortable (Acts 24:25), but Paul will reiterate later in this epistle that "it is appointed unto men to
die once and after this comes judgment" (Heb. 9:27). The Christian who abides in Christ has no cause for
fear of divine judgment (cf. 10:27), for Christ has taken the divine judgment upon sin (cf. Jn. 3:17-19) and
the Christian "does not come into punitive judgment, but has passed out of death into life" (Jn. 5:24).

6:3 Having mentioned six (6) elements of initial and foundational Christian instruction (6:1,2), Paul
returns to his primary emphasis of wanting his readers to "be brought to maturity" (6:1) by the grace of
God. "This we shall do, if God permits." Paul tells his readers, "We shall proceed to discuss the difficult
subject of the Melchizedekan high priest of Jesus Christ (cf. 7:1-10:39) in order to understand how the
"finished work" of Christ's intercessory high priesthood brings us into the maturity of living in faithful
receptivity (cf. 4:2; 6:12; 10:22,39; 11:1-39; 12:2) to God's activity in our lives." We shall do so, "if God
permits" (cf. I Cor. 16:7), Paul states. This is not an impious phrase of resignation like, "God willing and the
creek don't rise." Paul subordinated everything to the will of God, and he was fully cognizant that such
maturity in his own life and in those of the Jerusalem Christians was exactly what God wanted to effect, for
"He who began a good work in you will perfect (same Greek root word as "mature") it until the day of Christ
Jesus" (Phil. 1:6). The grace of God was sufficient to effect such maturity, if they remained diligent (cf.
6:11) in their faith (cf. 6:12) to inherit the promises of God to Abraham (cf. 6:12,13). This delicate dialectic
of grace and faith, of God's sovereign activity and the human responsibility of receptivity, provides the
necessary setting for the interpretation of the next five (5) verses (6:4-8).

6:4 The chiding of the Christians in Jerusalem in 5:11-14, that their reticence to make the difficult choices
to live in Christ could be construed as immaturity, is now expressed in the hypothetical possibility that they
might choose to repudiate their Christian faith and apostasize (6:4-8). Paul does not believe that they will
do so (6:9), but he pens these words to postulate the real possibility of apostasy, as he does throughout this
epistle (cf. 2:1; 3:12; 4:1,11; 10:26-31; 12:15-17), and to warn the readers of the very real consequences
to be incurred by such apostasy. As Paul returns to the hypothetical possibility of the Jerusalem Christians
abandoning Christ, he changes from the inclusive first person plurals of "us" (6:1) and "we" (6:3), and
employs the third person plurals of "those" (6:4), "them" (6:6) and "they" (6:6), to signify an anonymous
speculation, and his unwillingness to identify himself with such.

"For," since Christian maturity is effected by God's grace activity responded to constantly by the faith
receptivity of the believer (6:3), it is important to recognize the realities that a Christian has received in
Christ, and the consequences of rejecting such. In the Greek text the word "impossible" (6:6) is placed prior
to Paul's listing of the regenerative realities the Christian has received. This serves to evidence Paul's
confidence in the preserving grace of God as well as the persevering faith of the Jerusalem Christians, rather
than any pessimistic foretaste of a failure of faith. Without a doubt Paul wanted to encourage the Jerusalem
Christians by listing these five (5) spiritual realities that had "once," without repetition, become theirs in
spiritual regeneration. These are not a sequence of successive events in a theological ordo salutis, but are
realities that every Christian receives in regeneration.

Paul first refers to Christians as "those having been once enlightened." This is not a psychological
"enlightenment" whereby someone has "seen the light" by rationalistic understanding. Literally translated,
Paul wrote of "those having been brought to the light," the passive voice indicating God's grace action, and
the aorist tense indicating a definitive act. This spiritual "enlightenment" occurs at regeneration when an
individual becomes a Christian by receiving the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world;
he who follows Meshall have the light of life" (John 8:12). John recorded that "In Him (Jesus) was life, and
the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). Jesus is the "true light which came into the world, and enlightens
every man" (John 1:9) who receives Him as their life. The "enlightenment" that Paul reminds the Jerusalem
Christians of is the receipt of Christ's life. "The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord" (Prov. 20:27), and
when Christ life is received within one's spirit a person is 'turned from darkness to light, and from the
dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins" (Acts 26:18), for "by reason of
His resurrection from the dead, Christ proclaimed light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles" (Acts
26:23). When he wrote to the Corinthians, Paul explains that "God who said, 'Light shall shine out of
darkness' (Gen. 1:3), is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Christ; we have this treasure in earthen vessels" (II Cor. 4:6,7).

Second, Paul writes of "those having once tasted of the heavenly gift." This, too, refers to the
deliberate act of receiving God's gift into oneself at regeneration. The "tasting" is not a partial experience of
"tasting with the tip of the lip" (cf. Calvin), but involves "taking into oneself for the full experience of" For
example, when Jesus "tasted death for everyone" (2:9), He experienced the full reality of death, not just a
partial experience. How is the "heavenly gift" to be identified? Some have called attention to "the gift of
grace" (cf. Heb. 3:7; 4:7; Rom. 5:15,17; II Cor. 9:15), others to "the gift of redemption and salvation" (cf.
Eph. 2:8,9; Rom. 6:23), and others to "the gift of the Holy Spirit" (cf. Acts 2:38; 10:45), but the "summing
up of all things is in Christ" (Eph. 1:10), so the "heavenly gift" can be summed up in the person of Jesus
Christ. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16), who is "the gift of God"
(John 4:10). "God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 1:3).
As the Psalmist said, "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Ps. 34:8).

"Those having been once made partakers of the Holy Spirit" can only refer to those who have become
partakers of the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9) at regeneration. This spiritual reality cannot be separated from
the foregoing mention of the "heavenly gift" of Christ, for otherwise one has a deficient Trinitarian
understanding that fails to recognize the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ. At regeneration the Christian
becomes a "partaker of Christ" (3:14), a "partakers of the Holy Spirit" (6:4) and "a partaker of the divine
nature" (II Pet. 1:4). "God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts" (Gal. 4:6). "The Spirit of Him who
raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you; His spirit indwells you" (Rom. 8:11), Paul writes. "He abides in us,
by the Spirit whom He has given us" (I John 3:24), John adds. To be a "partaker of the Holy Spirit"
necessarily involves partaking of the expressions of the Spirit in the charismata and pneumatikon of Romans
12 and I Corinthians 12, but the reference here is not to be limited to such, divorcing the spiritual
manifestations from their source in the Holy Spirit.

6:5 Continuing his list of regenerative and salvific realities enjoyed by every Christian, Paul refers to
"those having once tasted the good word of God." Again, as noted in 6:4, to "taste" is to take into
oneself so completely that the experience of what one has taken in becomes part of the person receiving
such. Paul's mention of the "word" of God here is a translation of the Greek word rhema (cf. 1:3; 11:3),
rather than the Greek word logos (cf. 4:12; 5:13; 13:7), also translated "word." Some have made a sharp
distinction between these words, explaining that logos means an objectively manifested revelation of God as
in the historical incarnation of Christ (John 1:1,14), while rhema means a more subjectively experienced
personal revelation of Christ. Jesus Christ is both the objective and subjective self-revelation of God, and
can be referred to as logos, angellos or rhema. We must avoid, however, applying "the good word of God"
only to the tangible book of the Bible or to an abstracted construct of the "gospel message," for the "good
news" of the message of the gospel is Jesus Christ, and the purpose of the Scriptures are to reveal the
personified Word of God, Jesus Christ (cf. John 5:39,40).

Christians are also "those having once tasted the powers of the coming age." The "coming age" is the
Christian age, during which time Christians experience the dynamics of divine power as never before. God
"made the ages" (1:2) with the intent that "in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His
grace toward us in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:7). He has accomplished such, for "once at the consummation of
the ages, He (Christ) has been manifested to put away sins by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb. 9:26). This is
"the mystery that has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His
saints, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:26,27). The "coming age" is not just a future age,
for Christians have already tasted and experienced the Christian age in "these last days" (Heb. 1:2; Acts
2:17; I Pet. 1:20) of the inaugurated and realized eschatos age, empowered as it is by "the Eschatos Man"
Jesus Christ (I Cor. 15:45) which is not to deny a completed consummation of that "age" and those "last
days" in the future.

6:6 Despite the fact that the defection of the Jerusalem Christians was hypothetical and unexpected (6:9),
Paul posits the real possibility of a Christian having experienced the regenerative spiritual realities he has
listed, "and then having fallen away." This phrase follows the previous phrases with a single conjunction,
"and", but the obvious contrast of the action of this phrase with the previous phrases often causes
translators to add a contractual word, such as "and yet" (JBP), or a word of contrasted sequence such as
"and then" (NASB, NAB). The invalid translation is to add the word "if" (KJV, RSV, NIV) to indicate that such
action and its consequences are but speculative and conjectural, rather than a real possibility. The aorist
tense of this participial verb, like the four (4) previous participles, indicates a definite and deliberate willful
action. The "once" that applied to the previous actions (6:4) can also apply to this phrase, "and then having
once fallen away," indicating the singularity and non-repetition of the action.

To "fall away" does not mean simply to fall into an act of misrepresentative sin. The context demands that
we understand that Paul is indicating the possibility of falling away from a relationship with Jesus Christ
falling away from the enlightenment of Christ's life; falling away from the heavenly gift of Christ; falling
away from being partakers of the Holy Spirit in Christ; falling away from having received the word of God in
Christ; and falling away from having experienced the power of the age to come in Christ. To "fall away" is to
renounce and repudiate all that one has received in Christ. The Jerusalem Christians were in danger of doing
just that neglecting the saving life of Christ (2:1); falling away from the living God (3:12); falling into
disobedience (4:11); trampling under foot the Son of God (10:29); and being defiled by a root of bitterness
(12:15). They were being pressured by the Palestinian liberation movement to return to the Jewish hopes
for the material fulfillment of the promises of God to Abraham, and thus to abandon the hope they had in
Jesus Christ as the spiritual fulfillment of God's promises. Such a definite decision to reject Christ and revert
to the Judaic religion; to "drift away" (2:1); to develop an evil, unbelieving heart (3:12); to disobey (4:11);
and to "shrink back" (10:38,39) would constitute a deliberate and willful apostasy of "standing against"
Jesus Christ (cf. 3:12). It would have been a calculated capitulation to the coercive campaign of the Jewish
religionist, a deliberate denial of Christ and all of the spiritual realities inherent in Him in other words, a
"reverse conversion." Such a decision would be to blaspheme, to speak bad words of contempt and reviling
of God in Christ, and such blasphemous rejection of God is consistently stated throughout the Scriptures to
have irreversible consequences of being "cut off" (Numb. 15:30,31), of receiving judgmental wrath (Ezek.
20:27-36), and being unforgivable (cf. Matt. 12:32; Mk. 3:29; Lk. 12:10).

Paul connects the possibility of "falling away" with the impossibility of returning to Jesus Christ. "It is
impossible to renew them again unto repentance." Paul is not saying "it is very difficult" or "humanly
impossible" to restore a Christian who has rejected and denied Jesus Christ, but rather that it is divinely
impossible since it would be incongruous with the character of God (cf. 6:18). Although "all things are
possible with God" (Mk. 10:27) and "nothing will be impossible" (Lk. 1:37), it is impossible for God to act
contrary to Who He is, for He only acts out of His Being, and cannot act contrary to His character without
ceasing to be God. Acting out of His self-giving character, God has "given His only begotten Son" (Jn. 3:16).
The singular sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross "once and for all" (7:27; 9:12; 10:10) cannot be
reenacted. There is no other "sacrifice for sins" (10:26). If the salvation of Christ has been once (6:4)
experienced (6:4,5) and rejected (6:6), then God has nothing more to give. The totality of His grace and
self-revelation are expressed in Jesus Christ. There can be no more foundation of repentance (6:1), no
second basis of eternal life. As Peter stated, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of
eternal life" (Jn. 6:68). Later Peter declared, "There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name
under heaven by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

The impossibility (Greek word adunaton, meaning "no dynamic") of an individual receiving Christ, rejecting
Christ, and then returning to be renewed or restored to Christ must be explained theologically as a divine
impossibility. Paul Ellingworth writes that "the impossibility of a second repentance is not psychological; it is
in the strict sense theological, related to God's saving action in Christ."1 The impossibility of a second
conversion is not based on the psychological impossibility of a psychological hardness of heart whereby an
individual has developed a fixed attitude of rejecting Jesus, calling good "evil" and evil "good", and having
no concern for the things of God in Jesus Christ. It is not even a "judicial hardening" of the psychological
function of mind, emotion and will. It is the theological impossibility of reenacting the necessary foundation
of repentance and salvation in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. All of God's grace, love, and
dynamic of restored life to mankind are extended in Jesus Christ. If the dynamic of Christ's life is
experienced, and then rejected, then there is no theological foundation of repentance and salvation for that
person. This is not just the logical impossibility of God going back on His word, having made a static
declaration of "once apostasized, always apostasized," or "once revoked, always revoked." No, this is the
theological impossibility of God's sending His Son again and reenacting redemption. William L. Lane notes
that "to repudiate Christ is to embrace the impossible."2 If the totality of divine dynamic is in Christ, and
Christ has been rejected, then there is "no dynamic" to effect salvation again. It is a divine impossibility.
Later in the epistle Paul will write, "without faith (the receptivity of God's dynamic activity) it is impossible
(there is no divine dynamic) to please God" (11:6).

Paul explains the rejection of Christ and the resultant impossibility of restoration to repentance by using a
metaphorical figure: "since they recrucify again to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open
shame." Obviously, since it is not possible to crucify the Son of God again in an historical sense, Paul is
employing a figure of speech. Those Christians who would reject Jesus recrucify Him again in the sense that
they seek to eliminate and terminate their relationship with Jesus. They want to "put to death" and execute
their identification with Christ, by "hanging Him up" in rejection. In so doing, they publicly disgrace the Lord
Jesus Christ, exposing Him to public humiliation by inferring that the life of Jesus is of no value and does not
work. To thus "despise and forsake" (cf. Isa. 53:3) Him, and "insult the Spirit of grace" (10:29), is to exhibit
Him as contemptible before others, telling a shameful lie (cf. Jn. 8:44) about the Lord, and making Him a
mockery before men.

6:7 Paul utilizes an agricultural illustration, as was often employed by the prophets in the Old Testament
(cf. Isa. 5:2-7) and by Jesus (cf. Matt. 3:10; 7:16-20; Mk. 4:1-20; Lk. 13:6-9; Jn. 15:1-8) to relate to the
agrarian societies of their day. Paul does so to present a picture of what he has referred to in verses 4-6.
"For earth that drinks the rain that often comes, and brings forth vegetation useful for those for
whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God." The interpretation of theses verses (7,8) must
determine to what extent the agricultural analogy is to be understood as an allegory wherein the various
details of the story are to be identified.

The "earth" or the "ground" seems to represent the readers, the Jerusalem Christians, with a similarity to
the soils of men's hearts in Jesus' parable of the soils (cf. Matt. 13:3-23; Mk. 4:3-20; Lk. 8:5-15). Like the
rain that repeatedly comes, the grace of God is continuously available. The Christians in Jerusalem "had
drank" of the grace of God by their receptivity of faith, having "tasted" (4,5) and been made partakers
(5:13; 6:4) of God's grace by receiving Him into themselves. By God's grace vegetation or spiritual "fruit"
(cf. Matt. 7:20; Jn. 15:4,5; Gal. 5:22,23; Heb. 13:15) had been brought forth in the behavior of the Judean
Christians. Such fruit is "useful" as it brings glory to God (cf. I Cor. 10:31; II Cor. 3:18; Heb. 13:21) and
serves to cause the Christian community, the Body of Christ, to function as intended in unity and unto God's
glory. As God's grace continues to be received by faith, Christians continue to receive the "blessing" of God's
dynamic function of grace, and the "good word" (the Greek word for "blessing" is eulogias, meaning "good
word") of God's approval, culminating in the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (cf. Matt. 25:21).

6:8 In contrast to the foregoing scenario which represented the Jerusalem Christians as Paul knew them,
he makes the hypothetical contrast of what he perceived the readers to be in danger of doing, and the real
consequences of such action. "But bringing forth thorns and thistles, it (the "ground" or "earth") is not
approved (of God) and near a curse; the end of which is unto burning." Should the Christians in
Jerusalem reject Christ and not continue to manifest the fruitful productivity of God's grace in their lives, but
instead bring forth "thorns and thistles," the fruit of disobedience (cf. Gen. 3:17,18; Hosea 10:8; Matt.
7:16-20), they would not be approved of God, but disqualified and rejected (cf. I Cor. 9:27; II Cor. 13:5)
for not serving God's functional purpose of bringing glory to Himself. As a consequence of such a choice
there existed the real possibility that the Jerusalem Christians were subject to and "near" a "curse" of God
rather than the "blessing" referred to previously (6:7). "Blessing" and "cursing" have always been
consequences of man's responsibility of obedience and disobedience (cf. Deut. 11:26-28). "The end", the
terminal result, of such rejection of God's grace and the bring forth of the fruit of disobedience is "burning."

In the agricultural situation the farmer sets the undesired vegetation on fire to destroy it, so the field,
ground or earth, can be used for the constructive purpose of growing productive crops again. The "burning"
is a procedure employed to purify the land for new sowing of crops. It is here that the metaphor becomes
murky. Is it just the "thorns and thistles" of the fruit of disobedience that are to be burned, or is the ground
(representing the people to whom this epistle is written) that is to be burned? Is the "burning" indicative of
a destructive eschatological judgment, or is it a burning of purification? It seems preferable to understand
that Paul is portraying some kind of judgment of God upon disobedient people, rather than the works of man
being burned up like "wood, hay and stubble" (I Cor. 3:12-15). Jesus referred to "every tree (person) that
does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matt. 7:19, and to people being cast into the
"furnace of fire" (Matt. 13:42,50). Likewise, in the analogy of the vine and the branch, Jesus said, "If
anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up, and they gather them, and cast
them into the fire and they are burned" (Jn 15:6). In the passage that is parallel to this passage (6:4-8) in
10:27-39, it is obvious that Paul is referring to a judgment of God upon apostate Christians, for he writes of
God "judging His people" (10:30) in a destructive (10:39) punishment (10:29) that involves the "terrifying
expectation of judgment, the fury of a fire that consumes" (10:27). Let is be noted that "God is a consuming
fire" (12:29) with the prerogative of divine judgment. It is not man's prerogative or the church's prerogative
to burn Christians as recalcitrants or heretics in pogroms or inquisitions, as unfortunate incidents of church
history record.

Paul was warning the Jerusalem Christians that the rejection of Jesus in apostasy would lead to divine
judgment, and at the same time appealing to them to refrain from such action by building upon the
foundation (6:1) they had in their personal experience of receiving Christ (6:4,5). He was confident,
however, that they would not deny Christ and depart from the faith, but would bring forth the "fruit" that
accompanies salvation (6:9).

6:9 "But," in contrast to the foregoing allusions to immaturity (5:11-14) and apostasy (6:4-8),
"beloved, we have been persuaded of better things concerning you,". Despite the chiding (5:11-14)
and the warning (6:1:4-8), there is no animosity or antagonism between Paul and the readers; only a
pastoral concern of Christian love wherein he refers to them as "beloved" (cf. Rom. 12:19; II Cor. 7:1). The
possibility of apostasy is not, and should not be, used as a club of incentive to chastise, to create fear and
doubts, or to manipulate and motivate by guilt. Paul is convinced by the evidence he has observed or heard
that the Jerusalem Christians are in a better condition of Christian progress than that of immaturity (5:11-
14) and apostasy (6:4-8). Of the two illustrative options previously mentioned (6:7,8), the Christians of
Jerusalem are still operating in the better scenario of verse 7, manifesting the "better thingsthat pertain to
and accompany salvation." These Christians were being "made safe" from misused humanity in order to
function as God intended (that is "salvation"), allowing the "fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5:22,23), the character
of God, to be expressed in their behavior by God's grace. Paul was convinced of such better progress "even
if we so speak" of sluggishness (5:11) and the danger of "falling away" (6:6). Notice that he has returned
to the editorial "we" of personally inclusive plural pronouns, rather than the hypothetical distancing of
"those," "them," and "they" (6:4-6).

6:10 Emphasizing the positive progression of which he is persuaded, Paul writes, "For God is not unjust
to have forgotten your work". The statement, "God is not unjust," is a double negative that states the
positive reality that "God is just." God is righteous (cf. Ps. 11:7; 119:137; I Jn. 2:29; 3:77), and does not
forget or fail to recognize the grace outworking in the lives of the Christians in Jerusalem. These were "good
works which God prepared beforehand that they should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10), and He "equipped them
in every good thing" (Heb. 13:21) in order to "work in them for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). This "work"
is explained later as "sharing with those who were mistreated, showing sympathy for the prisoners, and
accepting joyfully the seizure of their property" (10:33,34).

As "love and good works" go together (10:24), Paul continues to explain that God will not forget or overlook
"the love which you have shown unto His name, having ministered and continuing to minister to
the saints." Divine love "has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 5:5) and is always
the "fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5:22). The Judean Christians had been receptive to God's expressing His
character of love unto the glory of His own name. Their "love of the brethren" (13:1) was evidenced in
"ministry to the saints," which is always the overflow of Christ life of love and service for others through the
Christian. These were, no doubt, the grace-expressions of the charismata (Rom. 12; I Cor. 12). Jesus said,
"To the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, you did it unto Me" (Matt. 25:40), and
"whoever gives to one of these even a cup of water to drink, shall not lose his reward" (Matt. 10:42). God
does not neglect to see, nor does He forget when Christians are available to His active expression of His
character.

6:11 Changing from positive reinforcement to challenge, Paul writes, "But we desire each one of you
to show the same diligence towards the full assurance of hope until the end." Paul's desire (cf.
Rom. 10:1) for the Jerusalem Christians is that they individually, and thus collectively, understand their
responsibility to exhibit an eager and zealous diligence of faith in the midst of their present difficult
situation. This is the "same diligence" as they have previously manifested in their ministry of love and good
deeds (10), as well as the "same diligence" evidenced in "those, like Abraham, who through faith inherit the
promises" (12), thus relating to both the prior and subsequent context. Earlier in the epistle Paul had
encouraged them to "be diligent to enter God's rest" (4:11). Now he advocates a diligence that is directed
toward a "full assurance" and confidence of understanding (cf. Col. 2:2), faith (cf. 10:22), and expectant
hope in inheriting the promises of God. Later Paul will make a corollary challenge: "You have need of
endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised" (10:36). This
is similar to Peter's admonition to "apply all diligence" (II Peter 1:5) "to make certain about His calling and
choosing you" (II Peter 1:10). Paul is concerned that the Christians in Palestine should fully bear the present
difficulties and "hold fast their confidence" (3:6) that God would be faithful to His promises (10:23) "until
the end," whether that be the "end" of the Judaic religion in 70 A.D., the "end" of their lives, the "end" of
time, or the "end-objective" of rest (4:9-11) and maturity (6:1).

6:12 The opposite of "diligence" is "sluggishness," so Paul expresses his desire negatively, "that you
should not be sluggish,". He had already intimated that they seem to be "sluggish in hearing" (5:11),
hesitant and reticent to boldly move forward in the instructional maturity of faith. Paul did not want the
readers to be "dragging their feet" in unreceptive indolence, "but imitators of those who through faith
and patience are inheriting the promises." Though the word "imitators" translates a word, the root of
which is mimos, the etymological basis of the English word "mimic," the linguistic meaning of the word is not
mere mimicking of external actions, such as "parroting," aping," or "monkey see, monkey do." The word
refers to patterning oneself after an exemplary model, and following by functioning in like manner as the
behavioral pattern of another. Paul commended the Thessalonian Christians saying, "You became imitators
of us and of the Lord" (I Thess. 1:6), as he had "offered himself as a model for them, to follow his example"
(II Thess. 3:9). Later in this epistle to the Hebrew Christians in Jerusalem, Paul will encourage them to
"imitate the faith" of those who led them and taught them (13:7). A pattern of functional faith-receptivity of
God's activity is worthy of following after in like manner. The Christian life, however, is not merely imitation
of another's external actions (even those of Jesus), but the manifestation (cf. II Cor. 4:10,11) of the
character and activity of the living Lord Jesus by faithful receptivity thereof.

Who is it that Paul is encouraging the Jerusalem Christians to pattern their faith after? "Those who through
faith and patience are inheriting the promises" could be taken to refer to other Christians, whether in
Jerusalem or elsewhere, who were evidencing exemplary faith and patience. The present tense of the verb
"inheriting" lends itself to such an interpretation. But the following context (13-15) indicates that Paul was
probably thinking of "those, like Abraham, who through faith and patience are inheriting the promises." It is
a distinctive Pauline theme to set forth the "faith of Abraham" as a model for Christian faith (cf. Rom. 4:1-
22; Gal. 3:6-29), and he seems to be elevating Abraham as a pattern for faith and patience (12,15) here
again, but with an even stronger emphasis on the faithfulness of God (13-18).

All Christians, along with Abraham, "are inheriting the promises" of God the promises of God to Abraham
(Gen. 12-17) and all of the divine historical promises that are confirmed and fulfilled in Jesus Christ (II Cor.
1:20). "The promise which God has made is eternal life" (I Jn. 2:25), and this divine life of the Son (Jn.
14:6; I Jn. 5:12) is presently realized by all Christians. Christians are "heirs of the promise" (6:17; Gal.
3:29), presenting "inheriting" all that God has promised in His Son, Jesus Christ. The inheriting of God's
promises must not be projected just to the future (as in Jewish eschatology), but must be recognized as
being presently inaugurated and realized, even though there is a "not yet" completion and consummation of
such hoped for and expected in the future.

In the meantime, Paul is encouraging the Jerusalem Christians to have similar "faith and patience" as
Abraham exhibited. Such receptivity to God's activity requires patient long-suffering when such divine
activity is deferred or is being masked by adversity and testing, as was the case for both Abraham and the
Christians of Judea.

6:13 "For," to explain the patterning of Abraham in inheriting the promises, "God, having promised to
Abraham, since He had no one greater by which to swear, He swore by Himself,". Abraham is
certainly on Paul's mind throughout this epistle (cf. 3:16; 6:13-15; 7:4,5; 11:8-19). Paul, like every Jewish
person, made much of the promises of God to Abraham (cf. Gen. 12:1-7; 13:14-17; 15:1-7,13-18; 17:1-
8,19). Paul's reference here, though, goes beyond the initial promises of God to Abraham, to refer to the
confirmation of God's promises to Abraham after Abraham had faithfully been willing to sacrifice his
promised son, Isaac, on the mountain in the land of Moriah (Gen. 22:1-14). God spoke to Abraham, "By
Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son,
your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed And in your seed all the
nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice" (Gen. 22:16-18). In like manner
as men (16) swear an oath to validate a promise, God confirms His previous promises to Abraham by a
sworn oath to guarantee His word. Whereas men always swear by something or someone greater than
themselves (16), such as the temple, the book, heaven, or God Himself, God could swear by no one greater
than Himself (cf. Isa. 45:23; Jere. 22:5; 49:13). God does what He does because He is who He is. His act
expresses His Being, and His Being is always expressed in consistent act. This integral oneness of character
and conduct is consistently expressed by any and every word He speaks.

In traditional Jewish interpretation of Genesis it was understood that God had confirmed His promise to
Abraham with an oath. Philo, a Jewish commentator and philosopher, who lived from approximately 20 B.C.
to 50 A.D., and was thus a contemporary of Paul, comments on Genesis 22:16-18:

"God confirmed His promises solemnly by an oath, and by an oath, too, such as could alone become God.
For you see that God does not swear by any other being than Himself, for there is nothing more powerful
that He is; but He swears by Himself because He is the greatest of all things." 3

Commenting on Abraham, Philo wrote,

"God, admired this man for his faith in Him, giving him a pledge in return, namely, a confirmation by an
oath which He had promised him; no longer conversing with him as God might with a man, but as one friend
with another." 4

These quotations serve to document the traditional Jewish interpretation of the two-fold promise and oath of
God to Abraham, which Paul refers to in these verses.

6:14 Citing Genesis 22:17, Paul quotes God as "saying, BLESSING I WILL BLESS YOU, AND
MULTIPLYING I WILL MULTIPLY YOU." The Hebrew infinite absolutes emphasize by repetition, as in
Genesis 2:17, when God declares, "DYING, YOU SHALL DIE." Though the Hebrew text has God declaring
that He will "multiply your seed," Paul shortens this to "you", for his emphasis is on God's faithfulness and
Abraham's response of faith, rather than on the universality of the promises for all nations.

6:15 "And so," to explain God's sworn oath to Abraham in Genesis 22:17, "having patiently waited,
he (Abraham) obtained the promise." With patient long-suffering (12) Abraham held fast in faith and
hope expecting God to fulfill His promises. Despite the delay in the birth of the promised son, and despite
the test to sacrifice Isaac (11:17,18), Abraham faithfully endured and "inherited" (12) or "obtained" (15) the
promise of God. Since the event being cited (Gen. 22:16-18) was subsequent to the birth of Isaac, the
"obtaining of the promise" does not refer to Isaac's birth, but to the blessing of multiplied posterity
thereafter. Abraham obtained the results of the sworn promise of God in the fulfillment and blessing of
multiplied physical progeny, and the Hebrew peoples received all that God had promised (Joshua 23:14),
but Paul will explain later that there was another sense in which he, and they, "did not receive what was
promised" (10:13,39). The direct spiritual fulfillment of the promises to Abraham would occur later in history
in Jesus Christ, though Abraham "saw by faith" (Jn. 8:56) that the Messiah would fulfill the promises (Gal.
3:16), and all the nations of mankind would be blessed spiritually because of him (Gal. 3:8). So, by
anticipated prospect Abraham inherited (12) and obtained (15) the promises of God in the "blessing" of
Christ (cf. Eph. 1:3) and the universality of gospel availability to the multiplied peoples of all nations of the
world (cf. Jn. 3:16; Matt. 28:19; Rom. 16:26).

It was important that the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem understand that the "blessing" and the "multiplied
posterity" were fulfilled in Christ, and that all Christians were spiritual "heirs of the promise" (17). Why?
Because the Jewish revolutionaries were promising that they were going to effect the fulfillment of God's
promises to Abraham in a physical, material, racial, national and geographical way when they liberated
Palestine from the occupying Romans. Paul did not want the Christians in Jerusalem to jettison the greater
spiritual fulfillment of the Abrahamic promises for a lesser and inferior false promise of physical nationalism
and religion.

6:16 Paul goes back to explain the confirmatory oath that was often employed in human interactions and
transactions. "For indeed men swear according to the greater, and all the oath is to them is a
confirmation for the end of a dispute." To create binding agreements men often made fiduciary oaths to
guarantee their trustworthiness. Such oaths were often taken by appealing to one greater than themselves
who might ensure or vouch for their fidelity. The Israelites were encouraged "to swear by the name of God"
(cf. Deut. 6:13; 10:10), and Abraham, himself, did so on several occasions (cf. Gen. 14:22-24; 21:22-24;
24:2-4). These human oaths served as a form of binding validation of fidelity, and the violation of the terms
of the agreement would constitute perjury. The oath was intended to avoid and resolve any dispute of
contradictory claims concerning the agreement, under the threat of dishonesty and a loss of integrity. To
"swear falsely by God's name" (cf. Lev. 19:12; Numb. 30:2; Deut. 23:21; Zech. 5:4) was to incur grave
consequences in Hebrew society. But by the first century, Jesus was quite critical of the chicanery of
unreliable oaths, full of loopholes and tricky verbiage, made with no intent to keep them (Matt. 7:33-37). He
cautioned against making such farcical oaths and admonished that one should speak honestly and straight-
forwardly with a simple "Yes" or "No."

6:17 "In this way," employing the acceptable ways of men at that time, and "resolving even more to
demonstrate to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, God interposed
with an oath." An oath was no required from God. God does not need to vouch for or guarantee His
faithfulness to His promises. Integrity, the integral oneness between what one says and what one does, is
inherent in the character of God. He can only act out of His absolute Being and character of faithfulness and
truth. Though men try to confirm their words of promise with an oath, enforced by the threat of perjury,
God cannot and will not perjure Himself. He cannot lie (18) or speak falsely or fail to keep His word and
promise. Therefore, God's utilization of an oath (Gen. 22:17) was but a determined desire to demonstrate
(cf. Acts 8:28) more abundantly beyond any human agreement that His immutable purpose and will was
expressed in His promise. What God promises to be His purpose is unalterable, irrevocable, and cannot be
annulled. He "will not change His mind" (Ps. 110:4) in a fickle withdrawal and cancellation of His stated
purpose. The Jewish writer, Philo, understood this:

"God is not able to speak falsely, as if He were a man, nor does He change His purpose like the son of man.
When He has spoken, does He not abide by His word? For He will say nothing at all which shall not be
completely brought to pass, since His word is also His deed." 5

"The counsel of the Lord stands forever" (Ps. 33:11; Prov. 19:21; Isa. 40:8). On another occasion of self-
swearing, God said, "I have sworn by Myself; the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and
will not turn back" (Isa. 45:23).

God's ratifying of His promise with an oath, swearing by the absoluteness of His own character, was "even
more" a desire to affirm and prove that His immutable and irrevocable purpose could and would be achieved
only in His Son, Jesus Christ. The "heirs of the promise" are Christians. "If you belong to Christ, then you
are Abraham's offspring (descendants, seed), heirs according to promise" (Gal. 3:29); "children of promise"
(Gal. 4:28). "Those who are of faith are sons of Abraham" (Gal. 3:7) and "blessed with Abraham" (Gal. 3:9)
with the "blessing of Christ" (Eph. 1:3). The "heirs of the promise" are not just the patriarchs of the past in
the old covenant, nor are they just the projected participants of the future. The "heirs of the promise" are
those Christians who by faith in Jesus Christ are part of the multiplied posterity of the "descendants of
Abraham" (Rom. 4:16; Gal. 3:29), having received the "blessing" of Christ (Eph. 1:3), and looking forward
to the completed and unhindered blessing of Christ's life in the heavenly realm.

Paul was desirous that the Christians in Jerusalem understand that "even more" than a sworn guarantee of
His promise of blessing and multiplied posterity to Abraham and his physical descendants, this was an oath
to prove His unchangeable purpose to spiritually bless men abundantly and universally in all the nations of
the world through Jesus Christ. In the midst of their trials, the Jerusalem Christians needed to recognize
that God was not going to let them down. "The plans of His heart stand from generation to generation" (Ps.
33:11), and God's unalterable purpose in Jesus Christ will not fail. So the oath to confirm the promise was
for the purpose of encouraging (18) Christians, like those in Jerusalem, that their faith and hope in Jesus
Christ is as sure as the Being and character of God.

6:18 God confirmed His promise with an oath (Gen. 22:17) "in order that by two unchangeable
things," His promise and His oath, both expressions of His unchangeable character and purpose (17), He
might demonstrate "in this way that it is impossible for God to lie." To provide a double certainty of His
unchangeable and reliable character, God made promises to Abraham (Gen. 12-17) and confirmed such with
an oath (Gen. 22:16-18). This is not an example of the "two-fold witness" (Deut. 17:16; 19:15; Matt.
18:16; II Cor. 13:1), as some have suggested, but just a double assertion, with the oath validating the
promise, that the divine character of truth can be trusted. The connection of an "oath" made to Abraham
with the greater context of the priesthood of Melchizedek is obvious from Psalm 110:4: "The Lord has sworn
and will not change His mind; Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." This verse
was quoted in 5:6, alluded to in 5:10, and will be again mentioned in 6:20, but the concept of an "oath" will
be specifically emphasized in 7:20-28.

The double attestation serves to verify "it is impossible for God to lie." As in 6:6 the "impossibility" is based
on the absolute character of God. The dynamic activity of God can only be expressive of His Being. God does
what He does because He is who He is. "It is impossible," i.e. there is "no dynamic", to express that which is
contrary to His character of absolute Truth. God can only act consistent with His character. The Hebrew
forefathers understood this: "God is not a man, that He should lie Has he said, and will He not do it? Or has
He spoken, and will He not make it good?" (Numb. 23:19). "The glory of Israel will not lie or change His
mind, for He is not a man that He should change His mind" (I Sam. 15:29). Man may be fickle, but God is
not! "He does not retract His words" (Isa. 31:2). God, Himself, says, "I have spoken and truly I will bring it
to pass" (Isa. 46:11), for His action always expresses His Being. Jesus declared such in His prayer, saying,
"Thy word is truth" (John 17:17). "He who promised" through Abraham and many prophets, that "the hope
of eternal life, which God who cannot lie, promised long ages ago" (Titus 1:2) was to be fulfilled in Jesus
Christ "He who promised is faithful" (10:23).

The purpose of the double promise and oath of God to Abraham was that "we should have strong
encouragement, those having fled to lay hold of the hope set before us." Paul explains to the
Jerusalem Christians that God's duplicated verification of the promise of divine blessing and multiplied
posterity (Gen. 12:2,3,7; 13:15,16; 17:7,8; 18:18; 22:17; Heb. 6:14) should provide Christians with a
strong encouragement and assurance that He is faithful to fulfill such in Jesus Christ despite the
discouragement of the present circumstances. Paul does not indicate what the Christians have "fled" from,
but only what they have "fled" to. Those who have received Jesus Christ to become Christians may be said
to have "fled" from the slavery of Satan and the spiritual misuse of humanity, from the consequences of sin,
from the frustration of meaninglessness and finding no hope in anything or anyone else, from religion, from
persecution, etc. In a sense, Christians are, therefore, refugees who have sought asylum from God. They
are "citizens of heaven" (Phil. 3:20); "in the world, but not of the world" (John 17:11,14,16,18). It is
questionable, however, whether Paul had the "cities of refuge" (Numb. 35:6-8; Deut. 19:1-13) in mind as
he wrote, or whether there was to be an underlying and indirect reference in these words that the Christians
to whom he was writing should flee Jerusalem (cf. Acts 14:6). Paul's emphasis is that the Christians have
"fled" to "lay hold" and "hold fast" to "the hope set before them." The "hope set before" the Christian is only
in Jesus Christ. "Christ Jesus is our hope" (I Tim. 1:1); our "living hope" (I Peter 1:3). Christians have "fled"
to Christ. Jesus is the objective content of our hope, "set before us" as the historical self-revelation of God
and the theological explanation of God's redemptive and restorative action for man. In spiritual union with
Him, Jesus is also the subjective basis for the confident expectation of Christians, "set before us" as the
encouraging assurance of hopefulness for the ultimate realization of all that He provides in Himself. This is
why "hope" is not "wishful thinking", but the objective and subjective foundation of stability and security in
Christ.

6:19 "We have this hope as an anchor of the soul, both secure and firm,". Jesus is the hope of the
Christian, for He is the realized promise of God. Paul employs the metaphor of Jesus as "the anchor of the
soul." Such a nautical figure was familiar to those surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, and may have been
on Paul's mind due to his recent shipwreck (Acts 27:29,30,40) on his voyage to Rome. An anchor (the
English word "anchor" is etymologically derived from the Greek word angkura used here) provides a firm (cf.
3:6,14) security (cf. Acts 16:23,24) by holding the ship secure in a position as the anchor is firmly lodged in
the seabed. Paul wanted the Christians in Jerusalem to know that God's promises would not fail (cf. Rom.
4:16), for His character precludes falsehood and perjury. Christian security and assurance is based on the
unchangeable character of God, who is faithful to His promises. Christian security is not based on proof-
texts of "eternal security" or on logical circumlocutions of "once saved, always saved." Jesus Christ, as the
very Being of God and the living expression of the character of God, is the dynamic basis of Christian
security. As the "anchor of our soul," Jesus anchors the Christian to the immutable character of the God who
keeps His promises in Jesus Christ, allowing us to have the confident expectation that we can endure and
persevere in the midst of any turmoil as we anticipate the completed fulfillment of our heavenly gift (6:4) in
Jesus. This was the verse that prompted Priscilla J. Owens to write the chorus of the hymn:

"We have an anchor that keeps the soul,

Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour's love." 6

It is also interesting that Clement of Alexandria (c. 200 A.D. cf. Introduction) was apparently the first to use
the representation of the anchor as a Christian symbol of Christ.

Mixing his metaphors of Christ as an anchor and Christ as the curtain-opener, perhaps because the Jewish
peoples were far more temple-oriented than maritime-oriented, Paul morphs the security of Christ in the
image of an anchor to the security that the Christian has because Christ is the "one entering into the
inside of the veil". Paul is obviously referring to the veil or curtain in the tabernacle and temple that
concealed the Holy of Holies (cf. Exod. 26:31-35), also called the "Holy Place", where the presence and
Shekinah glory of God dwelt in the Judaic covenant arrangement. Whereas the Aaronic high priest entered
into the Holy of Holies once a year on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:2-22), Jesus, as High Priest, "has
entered into the Holy Place once and for all" (9:12), and the veil was torn in two (Matt. 27:51; Mk. 15:38)
to represent that Jesus had opened access to the presence of God for all God's people who were spiritually
united to Him. This "hope through which we draw near to God" (7:19) allows the Christian to have direct
communion with God in the intimacy of personal relationship.

6:20 It is "within the veil" in the Holy of Holies of God's presence "where Jesus has entered as a
forerunner on our behalf". Jesus promised His disciples, "I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am
you may be also" (Jn. 14:2,3). Where was that "place"? It was the place of God's presence "where",
because Jesus "has entered once and for all" (9:12) by His death, resurrection and ascension (cf. 4:14),
Christians now have direct access to "draw near to God" (4:16; 7:19,25; 10:22) in intimate relationship.
Jesus went through death to prepare a place for us "near to the heart of God", as Cleland McAfee's hymn
states. 7

The Aaronic high priests of the old covenant entered the Holy of Holies of the physical temple once a year as
a representative of the Hebrew people of God, but the people could not follow them into that chamber of
God's presence and glory. Jesus, however, "having become a high priest forever according to the
order of Melchizedek," entered into God's heavenly presence as a "forerunner," the point-man and
precursor, that facilitates all those "in Him" to enter into continuous communion with God. When Jesus
"entered once and for all" (9:12) into the Holy of Holies of God's presence, it was a fait accompli, setting in
motion the "finished work" (cf. Jn. 19:30) of Christ whereby He continues to function as "a high priest
forever according to the universal and eternal order of Melchizedek." He opened the curtain for every
Christian to be a priest unto God (cf. Exod. 19:6; I Peter 2:9; Rev. 1:6), to have direct access to God's
presence and intimate communion with Him, and to live by the continuing intercessory work of Christ,
functioning as High Priest.

Concluding Remarks:

Though written in a particular historical context to the Judean Christians of the first century, these words
continue to address needs of Christians in every age. They remain "profitable" (II Tim. 3:16) for our
instruction and application.

There may be times when every Christian is "sluggish" (5:11; 6:12) and less than "diligent" (6:11) in their
willingness to "listen under" God in obedience. When chided about such immaturity, even when it is
suggested that we may be like elementary pupils or suckling infants in our spiritual progress (5:11-14), we
must not take offense, particularly when one like Paul is goading us to maturity, seeking our highest good,
and believing that we have everything necessary in Jesus Christ.

There may be times when Christians need to be warned of the real possibility of apostasy, and the dire
consequences of repudiating and "standing against" Jesus Christ (6:4-8). Such warning should not,
however, be used as a threat to create fear and doubts of one's standing with Christ, or to manipulate
others into increased performance of "works."

Paul's desire was that Christians should "be brought unto maturity" (6:1) by the grace of God. Spiritual
growth unto maturity is always for the end-objective of glorifying God, as "the things that accompany
salvation" (6:9) are manifested in the "fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5:22,23).

There is always a tension in the Christian life between God's grace-action and what "we shall do" (6:3).
Christians have a personal responsibility to exercise a "diligence" (6:11) of faith "until the end." This can be
facilitated by observing the pattern of faithful responses made by others (6:12), not in the sense of
simulated imitation, but in the emulation of how others have been receptive in faith to allow for the
manifestation of Christ's life and character.

We must always trust that God is absolutely faithful and trustworthy (6:13-18). God's actions are always
consistent with His character. Every promise of God will be fulfilled in accordance with His word in Jesus
Christ (II Cor. 1:20).

In the midst of competing voices and the pressures of difficult circumstances, Christians can have the
confident expectation of hope (6:11,12,18,19) that God will bring to pass (cf. I Thess 5:24) what He has
promised in Jesus Christ. This may require patient long-suffering (6:12,15) in the midst of trials, but this,
too, is empowered by the Spirit of Christ (Gal. 5:23). Even in the discouragements of apparent delays and
defeats, Christians are to remain receptive to God's activity in faith (6:12).

As "the anchor of our soul" (6:19), Christ provides stability and security in our lives. In a world of insecurity,
Christians have the divine dynamic of security in Christ.

Because of Christ's function as High Priest, Christians have direct access into the intimacy of God's presence
(6:19,20). We can "draw near" (4:16; 7:25) to the calm security of God's presence and power, participating
in the "finished work" of the continuing intercessory function of Christ's high priesthood according to the
order of Melchizedek (5:10; 6:20).

Inheriting God's promises

God is a promise-giver and promise-keeper! The whole Bible is filled with
the record of the promises of God to His people and details of how He kept
His word to them. In this article, we are going to specifically look at the
'faithfulness of God in keeping His promises' and 'our role in receiving the
fulfillment of those promises'.

The faithfulness of God in keeping His promises:

The Bible contains stunning incidents of what God has done in order to
fulfill His word to His children. Genesis to Revelation reveals how God is
ready to go to any length to keep His promises. Indeed, the Lord God
Almighty "watches over His word to see that it is fulfilled" (Jeremiah
1:12).

God bypasses the laws of the Human Body

It is God Himself who created women and the biological functions in their
body. However, in order to fulfill His word to Abraham and Sarah that they
would be blessed with a descendant, God caused even an old, dead and barren
womb to conceive (Genesis 18: 11).

God gives strange experiences to other people

We find this happen in the life of Joseph. While he was in prison, God gave
dreams to the butler, baker and the Pharaoh. Seeing a dream is, ofcourse,
not strange. But it is interesting that God gave these people all these
dreams in order to exalt Joseph and bring him to a position of
responsibility as promised to him while he was still a young boy.

God punishes those who stand as an obstacle to His people

The ten plagues that Egypt faced were sent as a punishment to that nation
because it kept the Israelites as slaves and refused to release them inspite
of divine orders!

God intervenes in Nature

Has anyone heard of a delay of almost a whole day for the sun to set? It
has never happened because there are fixed laws in Nature which govern the
universe. God exercised His sovereignty in this matter and stopped the sun
from setting in order that His people could defeat their enemies in war
(Joshua 10:7,12ff).

God moves the hearts of unbelievers such that they work on behalf of His
children

The Lord caused a change in the hearts of heathen authorities so that they
would work on behalf of His people. Kings and rulers, who were unbelievers,
brought about legislations and issued decrees so that the people of God
would be blessed and the plan of God would be fulfilled (Ezra 1:2-4;
Neh.2:8).

Our role in receiving the fulfillment of God's promises:

God is faithful to keep His word to us. But, on our part, we need to
exercise "faith and patience" to inherit the promises. "We do not want you
to become lazy but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit
what has been promised" (Hebrews 6:12).

We are required to patiently wait, pray and walk in the ways of the Lord in
order to receive the fulfillment of His promises to us. The following
examples reveal this truth:

God promised Elijah that He was going to send a heavy rain after a gap of 3
1/2 years. This was definitely a sure word but the prophet did not just sit
and relax awaiting the rain. Rather, he went on his knees and began to pray
steadfastly for the rain to come (1Kings 18:1,41,42). Abraham was expected
to "walk in the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just" so that the
promise spoken to him would come to pass (Genesis 18:19).

The Timing of God

God always has an appointed time for everything. This is clearly
demonstrated in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. His whole life was
punctuated with the statement, "My time has not yet come" (John 2:4) and
"The time has come" (John 17:1).

Solomon says, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter
under heaven" (Ecclesiastes 3:1). The Lord tells the prophet Habakkuk, "For
the revelation awaits 'an appointed time'; it speaks of the end and will not
prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will
not delay" (Habakkuk 2:3). The apostle Peter exhorts the believers to
humble themselves under the mighty hand of God in order that He may exalt
them 'in due time' (1 Peter 5:6).

God's timing is always perfect. The Word of God declares that He makes
everything beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:11). God is neither slow
nor fast; He is always on time. And we must learn to trust His timing, no
matter how painful it seems to be.

The Three Stages

The First stage is where God gives us the promise.

The Second stage is the time between the reception of the promise and the
fulfillment of the promise (where there is a maturing process at work).

The Last stage is where the promise is fulfilled.

Many of us do not realize that there is a time gap between when God
initially communicates the promise to us and when He finally carries out His
word. We are often prone to thinking that if God gives us a promise today,
we will receive its fulfillment the same day or the next day itself. And
because of this false expectation, we become lazy and discouraged and we
forget that we have a responsibility in this whole process of inheriting the
promises of God.

Dangers of Impatience

Our impatience in waiting for God's time to fulfill His word to us can bring
a lot of confusion and hindrance in receiving the fulfillment of our
promises.

Children of the Flesh will be born (Romans 9:6)

Abraham failed to wait for God's appointed time. The result was that
Ishmael was born. And what do we find today? That he was and still is a
great hindrance for the people of Israel.
If we are impatient with God, we will end up obtaining what we ourselves
have produced in our own fleshly strength. These works are not born by the
power of the Spirit but by the power of the flesh (Galatians 4:29).

Unnecessary problems will arise (Genesis 37: 5 to 8)

Joseph had a dream and he made the mistake of sharing it with his unloving
brothers. This only caused them to hate him more.

Impatience and immaturity make some people think that if a member of their
family has to get saved, they must always tell them about Christ. But the
truth is that if we constantly 'bombard' our unsaved relatives like this, it
will only harden their hearts still further.

We will end up misrepresenting God and His ways (Luke 10:51 to 56)

John and James, in their impatience and intolerance with people, were ready
to bring down fire from Heaven when a Samaritan village refused to welcome
the Lord Jesus and His disciples. The Lord immediately rebuked them saying
that they were operating in 'another spirit'!

We often see people constantly expressing to the unbelievers in their family

when they go through difficult situations that all their problems are a
result of their refusal to surrender their life to God. But we need to
remember two things:

Firstly, how did God deal with us when we ourselves were unbelievers? Was
He not patient and silent with us? "Because of the Lord's great mercies,
our sins have not consumed us" (Lamentations 3:22). Secondly, we need to
remember that trials and tribulations don't go away after we put our faith
in Christ; they only tend to increase! So the thought that problems come
because of one's rejection of God is not sound, Biblical reasoning!

We will fail to receive the fullness of what God has for us (John 11:1 to
45)

When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, He purposely delayed His visit to
Bethany and reached there only after four days of receiving their word. Now,
if the Lord had gone earlier, a simple healing would have taken place. But
because Jesus went after Lazarus died and was buried in the tomb, that dear
family was able to see the glory of God in all its fullness!

If we are impatient with God, we will get over-excited with the smallest
sign of progress or fulfillment of our promise. This will fill us with a
spirit of complacency and make us satisfied with immature fruits. We will
thus fail to receive the fullness of what God actually has in store for us.
The reverse is also true because impatience with the ways of God can cause
us to get overly-discouraged when we see things getting worse. And if we
get too frustrated, the Lord will then be forced to intervene prematurely.

The Waiting Time

What does God do during the waiting time?

Well, the waiting time is never a wasted time! During this period, God
prepares and develops us to 'receive His promises' as well as to 'handle
the inheritance'.

We must always remember that God sometimes 'delays' in fulfilling His word
to us because He wants to bless others as well through that promise being
fulfilled in our life. For example, 2 Peter 3:9 shows us that the Lord is
delaying His return to earth to take His saints to be with Him in order that
every sinner will be given further opportunity to repent and thereby join in
that glorious celebration.

Faith and patience are inseparable! Many people fix a deadline for God,
especially when it comes to the salvation of their loved ones! We think
that our fixture of a definite time is because we have more faith. But the
truth is that if we establish a date without a specific word from God, we
are only moving in unbelief! Have you noticed that when a person lends
money to another, he will never fix a definite time period for return of the
cash if the borrower is a close friend of his? He gives him total freedom
and liberty in the matter!

Faith is always ready to wait! I close with a treasured quotation from

Oswald Chambers: "Whenever God gives a vision to a saint, He puts him, as it
were, in the shadow of His hand, and the saint's duty is to be still and
listen. When God gives a vision and darkness follows, wait. Never try to
help God to fulfill His word."

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

The Kingdom of God

Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and
the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. Mar. 1:14-15
What is the kingdom of God? Where is it to be found?
Jesus said it was the Father's pleasure to give us the kingdom but what was he talking about? Through the
ages, men have believed many different things about the kingdom of God.

"IN" VERSUS "INHERITING" THE KINGDOM OF GOD

 "That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises."
Hebrews 6:12
"For you have need of patience that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise."
Hebrews 10:36
There is a difference between being in the kingdom of God and inheriting the kingdom of God. Every person
who is born again is in the kingdom right now, but some of God's children will be cast out of the kingdom and
will never receive their inheritance.
Because they felt close to my father, the family of a deceased physician asked him to come with them to
their lawyer's office to be a witness when the attorney opened and read the doctor's Last Will and
Testament. He agreed, and so they all gathered on a certain day in the attorney's office. Each person, in his
turn, was to be allotted his portion of the estate, and there was some anticipation in the room, along with
the sadness that attended the family's loss. The lawyer opened the will and began to read aloud the
deceased doctor's directions as to how to distribute his assets to each family member. At last, it was his
youngest son's turn to hear what his father had bequeathed to him. The young man had been an unruly, self-
centered, and unthankful son; still, he expected an equal share in the inheritance with his siblings.
The lawyer called his name, as he had also called the names of other family members when he read what
their allotted portions would be. Then, after he called the young man's name, he soberly read aloud, "One
dollar!" The foolish young man was humiliated; he had been disinherited by his father! He fell into a rage,
but his threats and furious curses meant nothing. It was done. He had been cut out of his father's will.
Years before, on the day the young man was born, his father had no doubt been thrilled and excited about
all the wonderful blessings he hoped to bring into his son's life. The future held much promise for the infant,
especially for having such a father as he had. But with the passing of the years, the son had grown self-
indulgent, stubborn, and proud, and he had caused his father and mother so much shame and heartache
that, at the last, he lost his inheritance.
This can happen, and will happen, in God's kingdom as well. We who are in the kingdom of God must not so
displease our heavenly Father that in the end He disinherits us, as the deceased doctor disinherited his son.
Jesus straitly warned us that some of his servants would be "given their portion with the sinners and
hypocrites." It is a coming reality for many unsuspecting children of God who have assumed for years now
that they were getting by with their sin. May God help us not be among them.

#2

"LET US MATURE"

TEXT: Heb. 5:7-6:3

INTRO: There has been a dramatic shift in our society over the past generation.

We have gone from a sense of duty and responsibility to a demand for services

and entertainment. The society around us has put great emphasis on "how do

you feel?" as being more important that "what should we do?" Our society has

turned inward rather than outward, a reflection of self absorption and

immaturity.

It is tragic, but the Church can reflect society all too much. Probably the
weakness of Churches today is that they fail to challenge those Christians in

the congregation to move on to maturity. If we are not careful we will strive

to make people HAPPY rather than make them HOLY, that we will make them

FEEL GOOD rather than make them FAITHFUL and GODLY. We must be

careful not to encourage just EXCITEMENT and avoid EDUCATION spiritually.

ILLUS: The story is told about an old American Indian who attended a church service one Sunday morning. The preacher’s

message lacked real spiritual food, so he did a lot of shouting and pulpit pounding to cover up his lack of preparation. In fact, as it

is sometimes said, he "preached up quite a storm." After the service, someone asked the Indian, who was a Christian, what he

thought of the minister’s message. Thinking for a moment, he summed up his opinion in six words: "High wind. Big thunder. No

rain." Yes, when the Scriptures are neglected, there is "no rain." Only when preaching is based on God’s Word ard His people are

challenged to respond and be responsible to that Word are they blessed and refreshed.

Excitement, feeling good, even entertainment can certainly be a part of our

experience as a Christian, but it must not be a substitute for spiritual maturity.

While there is an appropriate time to be immature as a Christian, we must not

stay in such a state. If we had our Children never physically mature after

several years after their birth we would take them to a doctor to see what is

wrong, if our children never matured emotionally we would take them to a

counselor, why is it we will ignore the lack of spiritual maturity in our lives?

PROP. SENT: The Bible clearly teaches us that Christ wants us to move toward a

mature walk with God, it is not enough to just get saved and wait for the rapture

of the Church, growth should be a normal part of our walk with God.

I. THE MATURE WALK 5:7-10

A. Servanthood 5:7

1. Christ is the perfect example of maturity, but it is interesting to read here

that even He "learned obedience"....growth came through being stretched!

a. The obvious statements here have to do with "serving"

b. Maturity is a process of taking the focus off ourselves and putting it on

others.

2. How do we mature?

a. Jesus was a student of the Scriptures

b. Jesus was not ruled by emotions, He did not avoid them either!

c. Jesus’ focus was not His own needs, but those of others

d. Jesus’ motivation was not from how He would benefit, it was motivated

by His love for others and His duty to His heavenly Father.

ILLUS: A hospital visitor saw a nurse tending to the sores of a leprosy patient, and said, "I’d never do that for a million dollars!"

The nurse answered, "Neither would I., but I do it for Jesus for nothing."

3. The writer here first gives us a picture of Jesus so that when he makes the

statement that they needed to move on to maturity they would know what

that means!

a. Jesus sets for us the emphasis for growing spiritually

b. His focus is outward, what He can do to minister....servants in the Kingdom of God are those who are growing.

c. Those who never serve rarely grow spiritually!

4. Jesus’ focus on His disciples was similar, while He did teach them, He also

washed their feet and served and called them to do the same.

a. teaching without connected responsibilities leads to intellectual arrogance.

b. Even our school systems are becoming aware of this principle, many of

them have included community service as a requirement for graduation.

c. there must be a connection between what we know and what we do!

(1. too many times some of the most difficult Christians to deal with are those who like to argue Scripture but don’t have their

own life together!

(2. The Pharisees were great theologians and had command of large portions of Scripture, but Jesus said they made their disciples

"twice the son of Hell" as they were (Matt. 23:15) Their prayers and

their service was done to be seen of men, not out of service to God!
(3. Sometimes the loudest complainers are the least involved in ministry! IT is time to grow up!

5. Christ’s perfect example of maturity should be our example for growth...He

set His heart to serve and sacrifice, we should do no less.

a. the more mature a person is the more willing that person is to do what

is needed, not just what they feel like doing.

b. There are no shortcuts to maturity, nor instant ways of getting there!

B. Stability 5:8-10

1. These statements indicate that Jesus was unwavering by experiences in life, both good and bad did not change his commitment

to the Father or to us.

a. One of the prevailing characteristics of mature people is that they are

stable.

b. Mature people are not starting and quitting all the time based on how

they feel at the time, they are people who have learned to handle the

bumps in life and stay on course.

2. Jesus never altered course, even in Gethsemene when he was in "great distress" and sweated as it were great drops of blood

from the struggle He

still stayed the course praying, "not my will but thine be done".

a. Maturity takes guts!

b. Maturity takes strength!

c. There is little work necessary to being immature, but it takes great energy to be mature and stay stable!

3. Some Christians are always floating around looking for something to meet

their expectations and wants, others keep plugging away looking for needs and try to make things better.

a. Look at Jesus, He did not try and reject Judaism, He continued to pray

and preach at the synagogues....though they were wrong, He sought to

bring the Jews the truth and change them.

b. It was the Pharisees that rejected Christ.

c. Maturity means dealing with things, not running away from them.

ILLUS: A wise man of the Orient once remarked: "There are three kinds of people in all types of organizations -- rowboat

people, sailboat people, and steamboat people. Rowboat people need to be pushed or shoved along. Sailboat people move when a
favorable wind is blowing. Steamboat people move continuously, through calm or storm. They usually are masters of themselves,

their surroundings, and their fate."

4. Christ’s example for us to follow is that of stability.

II. THE MINIMAL WALK 5:11 - 6:3,9-12

A. Security 5:11-14

1. The writer of Hebrews would go on more about Christ’s example and His Melchizedek-like Priesthood but he explains that

they are not in a place

at this time to do that, they have been too comfortable not growing...in

fact he states that they need to return to the elementary teachings again!

a. whoever these early Christians were, they were not growing!

b. in fact, the writer seems to imply that they had done nothing since

they got saved except to simply exist!

c. They were happy just being saved and had done nothing to learn more

and grow!

2. These were pretty strong words for this group, these people however had

not been just recent converts, these were people who had been saved for

some time but had not gone on in their walk with God.

3. They were comfortable and secure....so they were not growing!

a. this group no doubt was offended by this challenge and correction,

immature people usually do get offended when their immaturity is highlighted.

b. The author is challenging the fact that they were still infants spiritually, as long as they have been saved they should be on

solid

food and not spiritual milk anymore!

4. Immature people get quite uncomfortable around mature people

ILLUS: A person can be a Christian for many years yet remain spiritually immature. Therefore it’s possible for a new believer to

be far more grown up in the Lord than someone who has been saved for 40 years.
A good example of this is found in an incident described by Ethel Barrett in her book It Only Hurts When I Laugh. She said that

when D.L. Moody became a Christian, he developed such a hunger for God’s Word, spent so much time reading it, and was so

quick to obey it that he became a "menace" to some believers. His rapid spiritual growth was an embarrassment to certain people

who, though they had been saved for years, never grew up in Christ. Week after week in the church Moody attended, he would

share a new experience he had with the Lord. Finally, some of the older saints who just couldn’t stand feeling humiliated by his

exemplary life, went to Moody’s uncle and urged him to quiet down his nephew.

Ethel Barrett drew this conclusion about Moody: "His robust spiritual health and bounding energy disturbed their napping; he

was just too much. So, while they were sucking their thumbs, he was growing until he left them far behind; he grew more in a

few years than they did in thirty."

5. Maturity is a choice, not an automatic thing in the spiritual realm

a. Our lives should reflect growth

b. We cannot grow if we don’t even master the basics first!

c. We shouldn’t be afraid to challenge each other to grow!

(1. One Pastor I know told me that if he told his people to tithe they

would get mad and be offended!

(2. Paul wrote to Timothy and said that "leadership" in the church should not be given to "novices" (new Christians) because they

would be immature and thus not able to handle the stress or give a proper example for others to follow. Leaders were to be those

tested and "proved" to be mature.

6. Make sure you have mastered the elementary things of God before trying

to delve into the deep mysteries of God!

B. Satisfied! 6:1-3, 9-12

1. The author’s words here are a challenge...a challenge to move on and not

just be satisfied with the elementary things of God, the basics!

a. Notice in verse 12 he states that he doesn’t want them to become lazy

and be satisfied, they are to press on.

b. Like all Christians of all ages, they want to be mature, but they needed to be willing to pay the price to get there!

2. They want a strong stable life, and they want it NOW!...forgetting that

maturity comes through a process that takes both time and effort!
ILLUS: You don’t get a well-fed church from serving fast food. -- Bill Hybels

3. It is not that we are always unsatisfied, it is that we are not satisfied to

stay at immature stages on a permanent basis.

a. There is a proper satisfaction that should come for whatever stage of

growth we are in, but we must not be satisfied to stay there!

b. growth means maturing...this is a process for all of us.

4. "Let us mature"....as we become more of a servant and take the focus off

our own lives to see what God wants us to do for Him we will grow.

5. Maturity requires discipline and work...and any Church that will move forward must have in it people and a Pastor who are

moving forward!

CONCLUSION: While physical growth is simply an automatic response to BODY CHEMISTRY, spiritual growth is a function

of a BELIEVER’S CHOICES! Spiritual growth toward maturity should be the goal of every Christian, and it does not just

"Happen" to us, we must take an active role in facilitating it. If we take seriously the failure of a child to grow physically or

intellectually, shouldn’t we take seriously the lack of spiritual growth in our own lives? Are you maturing?